Good With The Bad

[Bill Babler]

Have been guiding 2 trips a day for the last week. This is my first day off in quite a while, and then back at it this weekend.

Most all on upper taney.

Water temps continue to be in the 63.3 range, depth has been very shallow even under 4 generators. Seems no matter the flow the depth is remaining pretty constant.

I am not seeing numbers unusual as far as dead fish. Yes there are some in the holes, but there always are. Fishing has been just about as good as it could be with the exception of day before yesterday when the water ran just about as mossy as I have seen it. A very green slime. Even that day Vince had fly fisherman on the upper river and did very well.

Tandem patterns boat fished from the dam thru Short Creek are very good. size 14 san-juan worms in either red or pink and trailing a 14 to 16 ginger scud are really producing. Fish yesterday were full of fight and really quite nice. Had 8 browns up to 16 inches. About 12 ft. seem to be a very good leader length from the indicator to the split, using 2 BB's and then 1 ft. to the worm and another ft. to the scud.

Other boat guides not fly fishing were doing very well dragging egg patterns and scud combo's, on 1/8th. oz drift rigs.

Fish seem to be reappearing on the flat above Fall Creek. They have not been there all Spring and Summer. We caught fish on it every drift yesterday and they were spitting size 16 and 18 scuds by the mouthful.

Did see quite a bit of activity along the bluff banks early, but when we later in the day with drys and droppers they were not interested. I believe an early dry fly bite does exist, so look for rising fish early.

Out of the restricted zone the crawler fishing remains strong clear to Lilleys' Lisa Lilley in the office reports a very strong bite on gulp power worms and also Berkley Bubble Gum worms worked on drift rigs thru that area. She has sold out of these baits over the weekend, but is now restocked.

Some of our fish are thin, but the majority are very healthy and vibrant.

Good Luck out there

[DoveTail]

Sounds like the activity is good. It has been so weird this year with all the ups and downs.

[bigredbirdfan]

Maybe something will spread the good fishin around.

[Toby from MO]

Bill,

Not attempting to hijack your thread but I have a few “rookie” questions. You mentioned two items in your report that I have been meaning to ask about.

Combo drift rig…how does a guy tie a combo drift rig? By combo I’m assuming two separate/different baits drifted simultaneously from a common main line. I understand the use of a three-way swivel and/or creating a three-way with using a single ~36” piece of line but I can’t visualize how to tie on the additional leader, i.e. the four-way.

Scud…can someone post a picture of an actual lure/fly? Are there differences between scuds used for fly fishing vs. drifting?

[Phil Lilley]

Our flies are tied in tandem just like when fly fishing. Tie them inline about 12-18 inches apart. The scuds are the same as used by fly fishers wading below the dam. Nothing fancy.

[Bill Babler]

Phil pretty much nailed it.

There are two common ways to tie tandems. Some companies Orvis for example will tie a loop on the tail of some of their dry flys as a hanger for a dropper, to use a traditional Western rig. Using not only the dry for an eatable presentation, but also as a strike indicator for a dropped fly. Example, a zebra midge. I simply tie to the loop with an improved clinch.

When using a dry as an indicator, I never use fluracarbon leader from the flyline to the fly, as this is a sinking material and will put drag on the dry. Just mono is fine. I will from the dry to the dropper use, usually 5 or 6X carbon. This will help the second fly down, and also has less memory than mono allowing the rig to be a little more tangle free on your presentation.

On our deep nympthing rigs that we are using now, I tie the first fly, usually a sanjuan worm directly to the leader. I am using 5X. About an 18 inch dropper is added and this is a weighted fly of some kind, usually a scud. I am dropping this on 6X FC. It is attached to the bend of the worm hook, continuing a straight line.

You can also tie this by using a plamar knot when tying on the sanjuan, running both ends of your line thru the hook eye, and then tying an overhand knot to the eye, and using the tag end, as your dropper to the bottom fly. Sometimes this is very deadly as it allows more free movement of the top fly, as it is not anchored at both ends and is not inline.

When using a small micro jig as the top fly it is a very easy tie using the plamar. This rig requires no weight as the jig or bead head on the nympth supplies all the weight you need. When tying this rig make sure your top fly is hook-up rather than hook down and it will increase your catch rate. If you tie it to your line and the hook is down, simply run the tag end back thru the eye of the hook and it will turn the fly. This is probably only going to be possible with 6X and flys that are 14 and larger as the hook eye is pretty tight.

When casting the trot-line presentation, Indicator, splitshot, topfly, bottom nympth. Try if possible to throw an open loop as to keep the flys from tangling. This is easy to do by forcing the butt of your rod in a downward thrust as the back cast starts to come forward. Driving the butt of the rod down, will open your loop allowing all the parts to turnover and layout.

Do not cast and recast as all this junk takes a while to get down. Simply mend and you can also pull the line back and redrift, keeping your tandem down, while drifting in a boat.

Hope this helps